I
f windows didn't already let so much needed light in, they would seem like the obvious place to put a solar panel. They can make a cold house warmer or a warm house hotter. It's evidenced every time a cat (or dog, depending on your preference) sleeps in path of a sunbeam shining through a window.
Auburn Hills-based Octillion thinks it's on the way to capturing this energy while still giving Garfield (or Opie) a comfortable place to sleep. The alternative-energy firm is getting closer to finding a way to spray a film on glass that will capture this solar power.
It is streamlining the process of spraying silicon nanoparticles onto glass, an important process in developing solar technology. Once mastered this new process will allow the company to quickly and efficiently adhere the electricity-generating film on glass, a typically cumbersome and time-consuming task.
"This advancement allows us to speed-up one of the most important steps in development of our NanoPower Window technology, and certainly helps better prepare for the transition from the lab towards larger-scale testing and production," says Nicholas S. Cucinelli, president and CEO of Octillion. "This new ability to integrate off-the-shelf components in the deposition process is promising and indicative of a path towards building a lower-cost production technology."
The technology is still in the development stage but showing more and more promise. Enough that Octillion hopes to use it and other alternative energy technologies as the main cogs in turning the firm into a company with a number of spin-offs under it.
The business employs 11 people. It hopes to bring a hand full more on board within a few years as it develops its technology. "It depends on the research outcomes," Cucinelli says.Source: Nicholas S. Cucinelli, president and CEO of Octillion
Writer: Jon Zemke
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